Dear friends,
I pray you had a joyful Christmas and a blessed New Year. On New Year's Eve many of us had the opportunity to gather for an amazing time of praise and worship. I could not have imagined a better way to cap 2023 and launch into 2024 than this night of worship. I want to thank Rob Woulfe for coordinating the evening and for all of the musicians and support people who came out to help lead us into God's presence in song and praise. It was truly a blessing to all who gathered.
This Sunday, as we gather for our first services of the year, I'm so excited to share with you that we are kicking off a new teaching series entitled “A House of Prayer.” I believe God is calling us to renew our focus on prayer as a church and as individual followers of Christ. Prayer is at the very heart of our faith. It is our connection to God. It is the power behind all we do in ministry. And I believe God is calling us to begin 2024 with an intentional focus on our prayer life.
The truth is, in the midst of our busy lives, it is very easy for our prayer life to get pushed to the back burner. It can become routine and perfunctory. My hope is that this new series will help us to reignite our passion for prayer and a deeper understanding of what it really means to be the house of prayer that both Isaiah and Jesus spoke of. So I want to invite you to join us this Sunday as we launch into this important new series. God has placed it on my heart that this is how we are supposed to begin this year, and I know you will find it to be a blessing.
I want to take a moment to lift up a couple of other things. First, if you have not yet had the opportunity to jump in on our “All For One” campaign, I want to invite you to do that. This special initiative is going to help us do some important work in our facilities in 2024. You can get all the details, and sign up to be a part of it, at this link.
Also, I want to remind you that our Night to Shine event is just 5 weeks away. We still need a number of volunteers. At last count, we were up to 80 volunteers out of the 100 we need to fully staff this great event. If you have not yet heard about the night to shine, it is an unforgettable prom night experience, centered in God’s love, for people with special needs, age 14 and over. It will be held on Feb 9 at our Plaistow location. This is an amazing opportunity for us to show the love of Christ to a community of people who are greatly overlooked in our world. You can see more information, or you can sign up to help, at this link.
Have a great week. I look forward to us all being together for our first Sunday of the new year. Have a blessed day.
I love you all,
Pastor Steve.